We’re out of Extreme Rules now and it’s time to get ready for Over the Limit. Christian has finally won a world title and is here tonight for his first night on the show as champion. Other than that we’re also officially in the new era of Smackdown with the Draft picks officially being on the show tonight. I’d assume we’ll start building to the next PPV tonight. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video of Christian and his career leading up to the world title win on Sunday. Think that’ll be a theme tonight?

Here’s Christian with the title and of course Cole runs his mouth to make sure the moment isn’t focused on him at all. I get that you can talk, but there are moments you’re not supposed to talk during. Cole needs to get this through his head QUICK. Christian says that he needs to do something and he holds up the title over his head in a pretty cool visual.

It feels great to be champion and he’s worked seventeen years to get here. Edge sent him a text message saying to enjoy the moment because he earned it. Christian starts crying a bit and thanks Edge and talks about the Peeps, thanking them for being there all the way for them. As he’s talking, Mark Henry of all people comes out to interrupt him.

Henry was cheering for him the entire time because he knew he could take the title from him easily. Henry is getting a main event push? Must have been two years since he got his last one. Christian says the belt isn’t made of chocolate. Edge isn’t here to protect him anymore. Before he gets anything else out though, here’s Khali to interrupt also. Singh says Khali says the champion should be someone that has been through stuff like you have in the jungle, like the Great Khali.

Christian talks about Khali being in a tutu on Raw and here’s Orton to a MONSTER pop. He wants his name thrown into the hat for a title shot. Here’s Teddy to settle things. The decision is up to the WWE Universe to pick who gets the title match. Considering Teddy has to stop for a Randy chant I think the outcome is obvious. Teddy says Orton wins the poll and the match is TONIGHT.

Back with Singh telling Khali that he’ll get another title match. They run into Jinder Mahal again who speaks some English this time, saying that things will get better now that he’s here. Khali leaves and Singh talks to Mahal (towers over Singh) in English. Mahal isn’t happy with the tutu Khali was in on Sunday. He comes off as a cocky heel.

Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan

Sheamus grabs a headlock takeover to start and the beating starts early. Bryan sends him to the floor and a suicide dive takes down the human jar of mayonnaise. This is another basic power vs. speed match and there’s nothing wrong with that in the slightest. Backbreaker hits as we take a break. Back with Sheamus holding an armbar the smaller dude.

With Bryan in the ropes Sheamus pounds away as other than that big dive this has been totally one sided. Shoulder block gets two. Superplex doesn’t work and a dropkick puts Sheamus down and gives Bryan a chance to breathe. Well Sheamus’ song does talk about fighting for air so Bryan is just following the instructions Sheamus’ theme music gave him. Big kick to the head gets two for Bryan.

Double axe puts Bryan back down but the Razor’s Edge (screw the actual name of it as Cole changes it every five matches) is countered into a LeBell Lock which is too close to the rope. Sheamus hits the floor and Bryan tries the suicide dive again. In a nice bit of psychology, Sheamus catches him with a Brogue Kick. Another in the ring and we’re done at 5:35 shown of 9:05.

Rating: B. Good match here as the power vs. speed stuff was working very well indeed. The psychology at the end there was a very nice touch and something you don’t see enough of in WWE. With Sheamus learning as the match goes on and drawing on experience from earlier he counters the second attempt. Nice touch there with the brawler beating the thinking wrestler by out thinking him.

Here’s Cody Rhodes in a suit. I love the headlines on the screen of him being disfigured and losing his mind because of it. The people with the bags are here with him. The lights are off other than a spotlight on Cody. Rey has injured him again with the mist from Sunday. Cody talks about how he forced Rey to expose himself….somehow. His eyes are still burning but even through burning eyes he can see that everyone here is still ugly. The bags go out, including to a good looking blonde. The bags may offend you, but the people’s faces disgust him. He’s awesomely into this character and it’s great.

We get a quick recap of the bonus tag title match on Sunday with Jackson dominating the entire time until Barrett tried to get the glory.

Big Show vs. Ezekiel Jackson

Show is on Raw but he’s a tag champion so he can be on both shows. All of the Corre is here with Jackson. Kane comes out to even the odds a bit because those two vs. Corre has gone SO well in the past right? We ring the bell after a break which helps my timing a lot. Well I’d assume it rang just as we came back as they don’t seem to have done much but were locked up when we came back. Hindrances all around.

Show uses technical stuff of all things and gets a front facelock. Jackson is like screw that and backdrops Show with ease. Jackson rams into Show and a slam gets two. Off to a chinlock as I think Jackson has a minor hernia. Suplex gets Show out of the hold as this is better than it sounds. Show fires off some clotheslines to set up the chokeslam. Corre tries to get involved but Kane fights them off….kind of. Everything breaks down into a brawl until we get back into the ring. Jackson gets a boot and a big clothesline for the pin at 3:32 shown.

Rating: C+. Not bad here as the battle of the big men worked pretty well here I thought. Jackson’s power is scary stuff as he was throwing Show around even better than Cena does and almost at the level Lesnar was. I probably overrated this but this was one of the better battles of the big men I’ve seen in awhile.

Jackson leaves on his own, much like Ryan did on Raw.

Time for the Raw portion of the show as we get the same video from NXT on Rock’s birthday. That I’m Coming Home song would be far better if Diddy wasn’t in it at all. Eats up four minutes.

Layla vs. Alicia Fox

I’m not complaining about Fox’s hips that have a mind of their own, but what exactly is she supposed to be? Layla is still trying this face turn so I guess this is her debut on the light side of the Force. And never mind as the Layout ends this in 52 seconds. As eventful as it sounds. There was some standing around, some lockups, some more standing around, a shoulder to the ribs in the corner and the neckbreaker. You put the order together yourselves.

Kharma comes out post match and ends Alicia with a clothesline, apparently legit injuring her. Nothing to Layla as her smorgasbord of heels continues. No one bet on that one so points for a surprise I guess. Layla had the sense to RUN AWAY unlike Kelly who just sat there. Alicia actually tried hitting her. Oh yeah Alicia landed right on her shoulder there. Implant Buster finishes this.

In the back Corre comes up to Jackson and they aren’t happy. Barrett says look at him and Jackson drills him. The numbers eventually catch up to him and the beatdown is on. Chair to the…..uh…..somewhere from Barrett is finally enough to slow him down. They shove what looks like a big laundry basket on him and leave him laying, out cold.

Chavo is on commentary for the next match.

Sin Cara vs. Tyson Kidd

He nails the entrance this time. They do the lights thing again for this match. Chavo sounds like he’s gearing up for a feud with Cara. Cara is moving too fast to call every thing. A double revolution rana sends Kidd to the floor where Kidd takes over for a bit. Cara is like screw this and fires off some kicks and a Tajiri elbow. Springboard cross body gets two. Chavo says Cara is stealing most of these moves from him. Kidd gets in a kick and tries what looks to be a tornado DDT, but gets caught in the C4 from the top to end this at 2:48.

Rating: C+. FAR better than his Raw stuff as either the lack of being live or the editing makes Cara look about 20x better. Probably too short to grade but they’re my ratings so who cares? They got a ton of stuff in here and it felt a lot longer than it was, but in a good way. Chavo is a good guy to put him with as he knows lucha libre and can probably keep up with Cara for the most part. Good match and Cara’s best yet by far.

Chavo stares Cara down post match and shakes his hand.

Video on the anti-bullying campaign from Raw. Yes, we get it. Bullying is bad. I’m so fed up with it that I want to go beat up a 9 year old and take his lunch money.

Teddy says it’s fair for Christian to defend the title tonight because it’s what the fans want. Also Orton had a last man standing match on Raw and Cena defended the title just one day after Raw. Both good points. Long says that it’s his job to make Smackdown unpredictable. Foreshadowing of a new style on Fridays perhaps?

Smackdown World Title: Randy Orton vs. Christian

This show has flown by it seems. Regarding Christian’s pop, in the words of Riddler from Batman Forever, “Your entrance was good, his was better.” Headlock by Orton to start but Christian gets a shoulder for two. Orton hammers away and the crowd eats it up with a spoon like soup or Jello or pork or other things eaten with a spoon. The champ sends him to the floor and gets a delayed baseball slide to take Orton down, only to be taken down as well as we take a break.

Back in the ring with Orton in total control. Orton works on the ribs and gets a reverse waistlock (looks like he’s about to hit a German) which looks like the cover of a very freaky Christmas card. They hit the floor via a Cactus Clothesline by Orton as we take break #2. Back with Christian holding a chinlock for only a few seconds. Orton gets a belly to back and both guys are down.

They slug it out a bit and Orton hits that gorgeous dropkick to put Christian down. He goes all psycho but Christian gets the pendulum kick in the corner and a middle rope missile dropkick for two. Guillotine over the top sets up a cross body off the top for two for Christian. Fans are way into this. Middle rope elbow (love that move still) hits and let the clapping begin!

For some reason Christian charges at him and gets caught by a powerslam for two. Christian slides to the floor to try a right hand to Randy as he’s in a 619 position but Orton avoids it to hit the elevated DDT for two. Angle Slam is countered into a reverse DDT for two. Slam hits this time and it’s RKO time. Since it’s the first attempt it’s countered as is the Killswitch. Christian goes to the middle rope and tries a spinning something off of it, proving why he’s an idiot as YOU DON’T JUMP AT ORTON! RKO ends the 5 day reign at 10:08 shown of 17:08.

Rating: B. Good match here and Christian definitely looked strong throughout. People are going to complain about the reign looking bad due to it being too short, but at the same time he had two matches and this was by far the weaker one and this was a very good TV match. Orton is a far bigger star and Christian got the reign that everyone wanted him to get. The fanboys will be up in arms over it, but you have to just ignore them as they’ll never be pleased. He got his title, he got his moment, he had two great matches and lost it. No harm no foul in my eyes.

Christian leaves the ring to an ovation and looks like he’s forced to retire. Pretty sad moment but it’s not like he’s leaving forever. He lost clean. The shot of him going into the back ends the show.

Overall Rating: B. Two good matches, some storyline developments and a new world champion make this hard to go against. A lot of the matches were short but a nice long main event more than makes up for it. They didn’t really have things in neutral but with such a short turn around before the next PPV I’m not sure they can do anything but Christian vs. Orton II at Over the Limit. Still though, very solid show as Smackdown looks good going forward.

Results

Sheamus b. Daniel Bryan – Brogue Kick

Ezekiel Jackson b. Big Show – Clothesline

Layla b. Alicia Fox – Layout

Sin Cara b. Tyson Kidd – Top rope C4

Randy Orton b. Christian – RKO

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4 comments

Smackdown was excellent tonight. Loved the Main Event with Randy Orton & Christian. I actually read what happend in the Main Event before tonight. Was a little bummed but I didn’t over react like some people did. I think Christian’s Main Event run will continue and will get another Title run in the future.

Good Matches from Sheamus/DB, Sin Cara/Tyson Kidd, and Big Show/Zeke. Looks like Zeke will turn face maybe after being kicked out of The Corre.

KB while I am indeed annoyed that Christian lost, to be fair do you really think Orton needs another reign? We can’t take Christian seriously as a main-eventer if this sort of thing were to repeat itself.
I know Orton is supposed to be the focal point of Smackdown, but if they just give him the title like this, wouldn’t that just make everyone else seem weak and make him SuperOrton?
Just my thoughts here.

1. I am still in amazement that Ezekiel Jackson isn’t dead after doing what he did with Big Show.

2. It’s nice to see Chavo get a little push.

3. I personally think that Christian losing makes Del Rio look even worse when looking at the big picture. Del Rio lost to Christian at Extreme Rules. Christian lost clean to Orton in 17 minutes. That makes Christian look weak if they want him as their number-2 face. And it makes Del Rio look even weaker because he couldn’t win a ladder match against Christian, and Christian loses in a normal match to Orton, then Orton could destroy Del Rio, and if Del Rio goes against Cena like the rumors say he will, he will seem even weaker.